The Red Lotus and the Stalker
by Krieg cormac
Summary: Solf J Kimblee becomes Sophia’s stepdad AU


Sophia didn't have an easy childhood despite what her Mother might say. Her birth Dad left after Mom got pregnant with her younger brother, so they always had little to eat. Often they only had scraps to eat while their Mother starved. Sophia resorted to getting into fights with the local gangbangers in order to have enough to eat. Sophia likes to think of herself as a survivor. She wasn't weak like her little brother or Mother. Hell, she wasn't even a normal human anymore. Sophia had triggered when she running from a particularly mad gangbanger. She proceeded to beat him till he was knocked unconscious and bloody. Life was going pretty decent in her opinion. She may not have had much food to eat, but she had a bunch of people to take her anger on. Until he walked into her life.

He was tall with long black hair and looked a mix of oriental and white. Add to the fact that he always dressed himself in pristine white clothes with a stupid looking hat. However, what stood out the most to her were his piercing blue eyes. They weren't kind or loving like his fake charming smile that her Mother fell for. They were cold and calculating like a predator. This was her Mom's handsome, new boyfriend, Solf J Kimblee and he was a predator.

Several months later

Kimblee, now legally her step-father was training her to fight properly. Sophia let a bloody grin show on her face as managed to get a hit in after being pummeled herself several times. Dam bastard was good at dodging and fighting, and it showed too as he jumped around her while punching her in the face. Supposedly he was ex-military or some shit.

"End." Kimblee simply said as he touched the area where he was punched. He had a small smile on his face. "Excellent punch, and you even managed to figure out the pattern I was using. You'll need to adapt faster. Go tidy up, I don't want your mother asking why you're all bloody." He proceeded to wipe some of her blood off her cheek with a napkin he had in his pocket.

Sophia blushed softly, nodded and left the training room heading for the shower. Life had changed a lot during the past couple months. One major one was that Kimblee was loaded, so he bought a new house for the family. He had even bought her the equipment she used as Shadow Stalker. Sophia grinned again as she reached the shower. That wasn't what made her happy though. Kimblee was a cape just like her. Again this shows how parahumans were the future of humanity and that they were the strong and powerful. She wanted to be just like him. Strong, respected and wealthy.

Another major benefit was the new friend, Emma, she made during the summer. Albietly she would have let her been raped by those ABB guys if she hadn't fought back. She had made it perfectly clear to Emma after saving her, and sure Kimblee beat her bloody as a result of interfering in nature, but it had been worth it. Emma had a lot of potential.

Sophia sighed as she felt the water cascade over her bloody and bruised body. Life was going pretty good.

Kimblee didn't normally let himself get attached, but he decided to make an exception for once. He had first seen Sophia beating some gangbangers in some back alleyway. It might not sound impressive at first, until you realized that she was teenager and these were guys several times bigger and older than her. It didn't take long to figure out who she was and where she lived. He had been in this weird new world for little more than 9 months, but managed to gain quite a bit of influence in the local cape scene.

Naturally he 'ran' into the young woman's mother at her workplace and charmed his way into the family. After all, he did manage to fool a psychologist into believing he was mentally sane. It wasn't that hard convincing Sophia's mother, Vanessa, that he was interested in her. At first, Sophia tried making his life a living hell, but a quick glare and a few gift easily made her calm down. Sophia's brother, Terry, was even easier to convince. All it took was a brand new video game system from Earth Aleph.

Kimblee had waited a bit before revealing himself as a 'cape' to Sophia and was quite surprised to see her power. Turning into mist was quite useful. It was quite surprising to know that Vanessa knew about Sophia's side activities, but it wasn't his problem. Of course he wasn't embarrassed to say that he thought all parahumans were some form of alchemist when he first got here, but he made sure he silenced anyone he even mentioned that to.

He has actually managed to grow quite attached to the Hess family now Kimblee. Naturally he consummated the marriage to keep an appearance up so Vanessa was happy. Sophia was an excellent student, albeit her hardheadedness and her overzealous personality. She eagerly accepted his survival of the fittest mindset. Terry was quite informative about the cape scene and was called a nerd by Sophia. Whatever that was, he was still useful when it came to the latest gossip or information about parahumans. Apparently Vanessa had missed her last bleeding and was possibly pregnant. Hopefully this child would be like Sophia.

Kimblee walked down the hallway with a grin. Doing a couple jobs with Faultline crew and her chimaeras proved to be quite a good move as he was paid quite a good sum of money. A couple other jobs with some sleazy cape named Coil and he had more than enough money for the new family. Naturally, Vanessa didn't know about his 'side' jobs and only knew about Solf J Kimblee, a shareholder at MedHall. Add to the fact that he transmuted enough gold to make him a decent amount of cash, but he wasn't crazy to break the economy, yet.

Every once in a while, he would go out with Sophia and observe her as she showed how superior she was. Homunculi were the future dominant race back in Amestris, in this world it was parahumans. It was simply survival of the fittest. Will and strength were the only things humans and parahumans had in common, and while a parahuman may have more strength than a human, will was were humans could theoretically try to catch up.

Kimblee saw that despite the power the Protectorate had, they simply choose not to act on it. They rarely asserted their dominance, and when they do it is quite glorious in his opinion. Sadly, the only problem he had was not being able to show his explosive artistic skill. That would simply give him a death sentence and a true predator would never back himself into a corner.

Kimblee soon arrived at his room and wipes some sweat off of his forehead. Then he took off his outer clothes, which left him in an undershirt and white pants he had on. He was about to sit down to rest when he heard a loud knock at the door.

"Come in." Kimblee said loudly, but didn't yell. Sophia walked in freshly showered wearing a robe.

"Hey Dad." Sophia said. She had started calling him that after he revealed he was a 'cape'. Nope, he still didn't like that terminology. At least State Alchemist had authority in the military and were automatically majors. Here, parahumans were only allowed to join the Protectorate and could not command non-parahumans regularly.

Kimblee nodded and motioned Sophia to speak.

"I'm going out tonight. You want to come with." She said plainly. Kimblee tilted his head and noticed she was wearing her costume underneath the robe.

"I'm afraid I already made plans with your mother. Maybe next time." Kimblee replied calmly. Sophia looked visibly down, but nodded and left.

Tsk, tsk, despite all of his teachings, she still needs to improve her mentality. She gets disappointed easily and should harden herself.

Kimblee then heard the door leading to the bathroom open. He turned his head to see Vanessa wearing a fancy red dress.

"Hello dear." She said happily. "Ready for our date?" Kimblee soured a bit inside, but nodded with a fake smile. Honestly it was such a chore.

"Just give me a moment and I'll be ready."

He walked into the closet and came out wearing a black suit with a matching fedora. He opened the door and let a charming smile form on his face.

"After you my dear."

They went to a fancy restaurant. It was quite boring actually in Kimblee's opinion, but Vanessa always wanted to go there. They were in the middle of their entree when he got a call. Kimblee looked at the caller id. Hmm it's Sophia. She never calls this phone so something must have happened. He could feel it in the philosopher's stone sitting in his stomach.

"What is it Sophia?"

Her response is what shocked him which rarely happened.

"The PRT got me. I need you and Mom to come to their headquarters."


End file.
